The present invention relates generally to managing work flow in a manufacturing system such as a semiconductor manufacturing system, and more particularly to a system and method for synchronizing an order change in the manufacturing system.
Manufacturing systems, such as semiconductor manufacturing systems, generally use multi-step processes that result in a finished product. The steps frequently occur in a fixed order. For example, such a process may begin when a customer places an order with a customer service or sales representative, who assigns an order number to the order. The order may also be assigned a work in process (WIP) number, which is used to identify a lot (e.g., a physical batch of goods) that corresponds to the order. The order number and WIP number are then matched after manufacturing is completed and the order is shipped to the customer associated with the order number.
Because of the complex and often automated nature of modern manufacturing systems, it may be difficult to alter or stop an order once the lot associated with the order has entered the manufacturing process. For example, if a customer changes an order for semiconductor devices, current practices frequently involves changing the old order with a new product name. However, the modification of the old order may result in losing track of the original related lot and so the original lot may be treated as an excess lot because the WIP device name no longer corresponds to a device name in the order. Furthermore, if there are multiple orders, a change in one of the orders may result in a hold being placed on an order. However, the incorrect order may be held, which delays the production of the incorrect order and may allow the order that should be changed to continue to completion. These scenarios are obviously not desirable from either a profit or inventory standpoint.
In the semiconductor manufacturing process, due to its nature of long time periods, multiple processing steps, multiple processing locations, any inconsistency in the labeling for the manufactured lots that happens at any time can cause severe consequences including unnecessary financial costs to the manufacturing company. In addition, administrators of the manufacturing process will have to spend much more time to resolve the inconsistency manually.
Therefore, certain improvements are desired for manufacturing processes. For example, it is desired to better adapt to changes to an order that are made once the order has entered a manufacturing process.
In one embodiment, a method for synchronizing at least one order change request in a manufacturing system is provided, where the order is associated with an order number and a work in process (WIP) number identifying a physical manufacturing lot. The method comprises freezing a relationship between the order number and the WIP number upon receipt of the order change request and providing at least one order change option based on the order change request. A match code associated with the order change option is identified and the order number and the WIP number are updated using the match code, so that the WIP number is synchronized with the order number.